Dashing with scooters to in-hospital emergencies: a randomised cross-over experiment.

Abstract

Physical exhaustion is a frequent condition in emergency medical teams after in-house emergency runs, which might affect the quality of advanced care. Newly available light-weight scooters may reduce exertion as measured by the cardiovascular response in these circumstances and, therefore, may reduce physical exhaustion on arrival. We undertook a randomised cross-over trial in a simulated in-house emergency alarm run to examine the influence of scooting compared with conventional running on pulse rate (primary outcome), manual skillfulness and response time. We tested 24 emergency department professionals in eight emergency medical teams. After scooting the pulse rate was significantly lower compared with conventional running [157 (IQR 145-169) vs. 170 (IQR 154-175) min(-1), P=0.004]. After the simulated emergency alarm run no difference was found in manual skillfulness and response time between scooting and running. Using scooters for simulated in-house emergency alarm runs markedly reduces the cardiovascular response of emergency medical teams.